I Know Where You Were Last Summer
by CharlesTheBold
Summary: During summer holidays, Hermione decides to investigate a powerful spell.
1. Home Alone

**We Know Where You Were Last Summer**

_(Disclaimer: I have no business connection with HARRY POTTER. My only purpose in writing this story is to have fun and maybe share it)_

_(Author's Note: This story is set during the summer between PRISONER OF AZKABAN and GOBLET OF FIRE. I have written a couple of other "Hermione's summer" stories: HERMIONE GRANGER AND THE PHILOSOPHER, set after year 1, and HERMIONE ON HOLIDAY, set after year 5) _

**Chapter 1 Home Alone**

It was one of those rare moments when Hermione found herself with some privacy. Hogwarts was a wonderful place, but it was hard to get completely alone there. Hermione had three roommates. During the most of the time when she wasn't with them, she was with Ron and Harry. If she wasn't with any of them, she was usually in a class or the library, where the grownup in charge was careful to keep an eye on the star student. Even in the loo, there was danger of Moaning Myrtle popping up.

But now it was the summer holidays after her third year at Hogwarts, and she was at home. Earlier in the summer she had worked in a bookstore, but that job had wound up at the end of last week, and so now she was alone in the house all day, while her parents were at work at their dentistry office.

She didn't have to present a well-behaved facade to anybody at the moment, much to her relief, and so she decided to do something a bit daring.

One of the other temps at the bookstore – a few years older than Hermione, but also a student – was a boy named Johnny. She had caught him staring at her every once in a while, seemingly admiring her figure. It was the first time a boy had shown that sort of interest in her. Of course she was very close friends with Ron and Harry at Hogwarts, but neither of them seemed romantically interested in her. They always treated her as one of the boys. It hadn't bothered her at first, but now that she was fourteen and noticing boys, she longed for one to notice her too.

Johnny and Hermione had had almost no chance to talk about anything but business – when they did try to have a private conversation, the manager would accuse them of "spooning around" – which was true, though expressed in a very old-fashioned way. But before ending her employment, Hermione had been careful to get Johnny's phone number out of the store employment records. Now she dialled it.

"Johnny, this is Minnie Granger." She wasn't too fond of the nickname, but it was the one she was known by in the Muggle world.

"Minnie! How cool to hear from you again."

"Yes, I'd be interested in seeing you again too."

"Perhaps we could meet at –"

"No, I'm too young to drive." She was glossing over the fact that most witches never learned to drive, but depended on Portkeys, Floo powder, and Apparition, none of which she could use at the moment. Not to mention, she wasn't even of age where she could potentially learn.

"I have a car. Would you like me to pick you up?"

"I don't think we should go out, but if you'd like to pay a visit – let me give you my address. "

"Would your parents object?"

"It doesn't matter. They're at work."

Hermione was a clever girl, but her notion of social behaviour had been formed at a co-educational boarding school. You dealt with boys all the time, you might hide with them in a loo, you might even squeeze near to one under an Invisibility Cloak, without assuming that it implied a strong sexual invitation. Her two closest male friends never thought of giving her a kiss. It didn't occur to her how an invitation to visit her in an empty house might come across to Johnny.

About half an hour later, she heard a knock at the front door. Johnny was standing there, looking very handsome.

"Hullo, Johnny. Come in." She had been careful to hide away all the magic possessions in her room, and was dressed in conventional blue jeans and blouse. "Um, why don't we go into the drawing room?"

"Yeah, OK," he said, noncommittally.

They sat down on the main sofa, in front of her parent's telly. Hermione tried talking about the bookstore, but it turned out that Johnny was no longer interested in the shop now that he no longer worked there. Nor in the common acquaintances they had there. Apparently he had dismissed them all, except for Hermione.

She suddenly found herself at a loss for something to talk about. She could not mention Hogwarts, or anything associated with it. She couldn't describe the thrill of learning a new spell and having it work. Or tell jokes about how silly Professor Trelawney was. Or how exciting it had been to out-manoeuvre the Whomping Willow. Or how the Ministry of Magic had honoured her with a precious experimental gadget, the Time Turner. And it definitely would not be a good idea to mention how she had enjoyed punching Draco Malfoy in the nose.

"Um, would you like to watch the telly with me?"

"That would be cool."

Hermione wasn't familiar with the television schedule. She spent most of her time at a school where electronics didn't work. She let him choose a show, pretending that she was eager to please him, and he chose some American adventure movie that she had not heard of. As it soon turned out, his mind was not really on the telly either.

As they watched, Johnny edged closer to her on the sofa. When she didn't object, he put his arm around her shoulder. Eventually, the telly program quite forgotten, he put his other hand around her and pulled her close.

At first Hermione was thrilled with the embrace, but as he held her more tightly, and she felt her breasts pressing into his chest, she decided things were going too far. She released him and tried to pull back, but he didn't respond to the hint. She had to push him away.

Staring at her avidly, he put out a hand toward her breast. She slapped it away and stood up. He followed suit, and his look got positively predatory. She knew what was in his mind.

Frightened, Hermione turned and dashed toward her room, with Johnny in pursuit.

Slamming the bedroom door, she rushed to her dresser and got out her wand, which she had hidden in her sock drawer. She waved it toward the door.

"_Maledictus sit in genitalibus!"_

She heard a yelp of pain from outside. Taking a risk, she put her wand in her jeans pocket and opened the door. She saw Johnny doubled up in considerable discomfort, all thought of catching Hermione discarded.

"What have you done to me?" he gasped, holding his abdomen.

"Me to you? I don't know what you're talking about," said Hermione, trying to sound innocent and bewildered. "Seems to me that you were trying to do something to me. I suggest you leave." Hermione took a deep breath. She didn't want to appear shaken.

Johnny hastily turned and headed back to the front door, trying to make it appear that he was complying with her suggestion and not actually fleeing the scene. As he crossed the threshold, Hermione muttered the counter-spell. She didn't think it would stop his retreat; from his point of view, what had happened to his body was not only agonizing but mystifying, and he wanted to get away from the vicinity as quickly as possible.

Hermione sighed. "Stupid, stupid, I was so stupid!" For Hermione, that was a very painful admission to make. Why, with such wonderful boys such as Ron and Harry in her life, had she exposed herself to danger with a bloke that she really knew little about? She realized that there was much to the world she had to discover, and very little of the wisdom would be found in books.

After an hour of gloom and humiliation, she heard another knock at the front door. She looked through the spyhole to make sure it wasn't Johnny again, then opened the door.

"I knew that you'd probably be visiting," she said meekly. "Come in, Professor McGonagall."

TO BE CONTINUED


	2. Aftereffects

**We Know Where You Were Last Summer**

**Chapter 2 Aftereffects**

Minerva McGonagall entered the Granger house. Had she had her usual robes and witch's hat on, Hermione would have found her appearance in her modern house rather bizarre. But the assistant headmistress had disguised herself as a Muggle, and done it rather well. Her long dress looked a little odd in 1994, but it fit in with the grey hair; she might have been somebody's old-fashioned great-grandmother.

Hermione's normal inclination would be to lead her to the drawing room, but that held unpleasant memories for her at the moment, so instead she took the guest to the dining room under the pretence of wanting to serve her tea.

"Let me get right to the point, Miss Granger. I happened to be visiting the Ministry this afternoon, and I heard some distressing talk, that you had performed some magic outside of Hogwarts, in the presence of a Muggle. Since you have an excellent record at school, and I am the Head of your House, I persuaded the Ministry to let me visit you rather than sending a stranger. Can you explain what happened?"

Hermione winced; she wanted to forget the story, and instead she would have to tell it in detail. It was fortunate that Professor McGonagall was a woman. Imagine if Hermione was a Slytherin girl, and had to tell her story of near date-rape to Slytherin's Head, Professor Snape! She managed to tell an honest account of the misadventure.

"I see," the Professor said grimly, pursing her lips. "Self-defence is an acceptable reason for using magic out of turn. However, the Ministry may be somewhat annoyed that you let yourself get into the danger that made the magic necessary. Do you believe that this Johnny Muggle intended to, ahem, violate you when he came?"

"No," said Hermione, sighing, feeling a bit dense. "I've thought over it, after the fact, and trie d to visualize the situation from his point of view. I think he misinterpreted my invitation, and thought I was willing to s-s-sleep with him while my parents were out." She actually had to take a deep breath to steady herself. "Which is scary, because I'm only fourteen."

"He might have thought you were older. You are, after all, quite clever, and act somewhat above your age."

"Maybe." She liked the notion that she came across as mature, and if Johnny had thought that she was sixteen and non-virginal, the situation became slightly less creepy. "Anyway, it's only after he realize that I WASN'T going all the way that he turned nasty."

"The main fault lies with him, not with you," McGonagall reassured her. "In additional, the Muggle is unlikely, for reasons of masculine pride, to discuss with others the hex you put on him, plus he may not even realize that it was magic. Wherever did you learn that spell?"

"Um, Restricted Section of the library."

"Why am I not surprised?" asked McGonagall with amusement, and she didn't press the question of how Hermione had gotten in there. Then she sobered. " I can reassure the Ministry that our secrets were not threatened."

"Thank you," said Hermione, relieved. "But, please, could you tell as few people as possible? I don't want my parents to know what happened."

"I would advise you to be honest with your parents, but I will not force the issue. I will talk to a minimum of people at the Ministry, enough to get the matter closed and sealed off." She got up. "Thank you for the tea, Miss Granger. I presume that I may see you at the World Quidditch Cup?"

"Yes, I'm making arrangements to go with the Weasleys."

She was guiding McGonagall to the door when she stopped for a moment. "Professor? May I ask a question?"

"You may."

"How did the Ministry know what happened? Harry told me of earlier incidents."

McGonagall paused for a moment, looking like she might not share the details. "There is a charm called the Trace, which is put on students when they arrive at Hogwarts for the first time, and expires when they reach seventeen. It's intended to guard against accidental displays of magic to Muggles. More than that, I'm not permitted to say."

"I see." Some things were clear to Hermione even though McGonagall did not make them explicit. Why not put the Trace on adults as well, and make wizard secrecy even more airtight? She could guess that grown-ups would not stand up for such a thing, whereas wizards below seventeen were "minors" and had no say in the matter. She rather resented the attitude, though she had to admit that a lot of the wizard kids really could get careless about the use of wizardly spells at the wrong time. Just thinking about the Weasley twins able to use their magic anytime made her cringe. The trouble they could get into!

Meanwhile she was still alone at home. She wanted to get her ever-active mind off the incidents of the afternoon. Maybe she could get out her copy of QUIDDITCH THROUGH THE AGES, and see if it mentioned anything interesting about the World Cup?

Roughly an hour later, after Hermione had cheered herself up with a lot of reading, the telephone rang.

"Hullo?"

"Minnie, this is your mum. We're running a little late at work today – some kid got in a minor accident and lost a tooth. Could you do us a favour, and pick up a loaf of bread and some jam at the grocer's?"

"Certainly, Mum." She felt a little guilty, playing obedient little Minnie while covering up the incidents of the afternoon. Maybe McGonagall was right, that she ought to discuss it with her parents in the long run. But there were a lot of things that she DIDN'T tell her parents - about running an obstacle course of dangerous spells on the way to the Philosopher's Stone, about accidentally turning herself into a cat and later getting paralyzed by the basilisk, and having to dodge a werewolf and a Whomping Willow and some crazy grownup wizards. She didn't want to worry them.

She locked the front door behind her, and started on the walk. The grocer's was just two blocks away, and it was a safe neighbourhood, so it would not be strenuous.

She lived on a pretty, if unremarkable, street in metropolitan London. No Muggle seeing the jeans-clad teenager walking along the pavement was likely to suspect that she was a witch who spent much of her life in a thousand-year-old castle studying ancient spells. She was thus shocked when, rounding a corner, she heard a voice behind a fence snarl a wizarding word, though definitely not a polite one.

"Mudblood."

Hermione whirled in surprise. A girl emerged from behind the fence. Pansy Parkinson.

Pansy was just about Hermione's least favourite girl in the world. Not only did she belong to Slytherin, the abode of pureblood wizards, but she seemed to be Draco Malfoy's girlfriend, which to Hermione represented disastrously poor judgement. Hermione had punched Draco on the nose during one of their most recent encounters, and Pansy was not going to be friendly over that.

Like many wizards and witches, Pansy did not understand how to dress to fit in Muggle surroundings. She was wearing Muggle-style jeans, though she had somehow dyed them purple, and paired them incongruously with a fancy French blouse that shows some cleavage. That limited how intimidating she could be, but not by much. At least she was unlikely to have brought her wand with her. If Hermione's actions in her house had gotten the Ministry's attention, then zapping an enemy on a public Muggle road was a real no-no. This encounter was likely to be purely verbal.

"Mudblood," Pansy repeated. "Don't like that word? Well, here's another. Whore!"

"What are you talking about?" hedged Hermione, feeling uneasy. McGonagall had promised to be discreet -

"Oh, don't act so innocent. I know you invited a filthy Muggle boy to your house for some shagging this afternoon. But how would you like your boyfriend Harry Potter to know?"

TO BE CONTINUED


	3. How?

**We Know Where You Were Last Summer**

**Chapter 3 How?**

Hermione stood in bewilderment. Pansy's analysis was wrong on many points, of course. Harry was not Hermione's boyfriend, and she had had no intention of uniting with Johnny. But Pansy knew of Johnny's visit. How?

"What do you want?" Hermione asked, to play for time.

"I want to know what your trick is."

"My trick?"

Pansy laughed. "You're a Muggle. But you keep getting higher marks than real wizards and witches, even in Potions. You have some system for cheating, and nobody has been able to figure it out for 3 years. Well, I want it. I'm tired of working my bum off in school."

Hermione sighed. "There's no trick. 'There's no royal road to geometry', as Euclid said two thousand years ago. I study hard. And if other girls would study hard instead of chasing after certain boys, they'd succeed too."

Pansy snorted. "I don't believe you. I know that you have a trick, and if you don't give it to me, I'll tell Harry Potter what you did today." She turned and walked away behind the fence.

Hermione stood for a moment, disgusted with Pansy. If she had found a cheating scandal and wanted to bring the violator to justice, Hermione might respect her attitude. But Pansy just wanted to cash into it.

Hermione belatedly decided chase after the girl. She dashed around the fence – and saw no sign of Pansy. Where had she gone?

She must have teleported out somehow, Hermione thought. There were several varieties of teleportation that Hermione knew about, but none of them explained this. Portkeys would teleport at a preset moment and bring with them any human that was touching it, but Pansy had shown no sign of being on a deadline, had not even checked a watch. Floo Networks connected fixed points in the wizard world; you would not expect them in a Muggle's front yard. Experienced wizards could "Apparate" with the aid of a wand, but the process was dangerous, like a Muggle driving a car, and the skills were deliberately not taught to fourteen-year-olds. Pansy knew a mysterious trick of her own.

First things first. Complete the errand for her parents, so they wouldn't suspect anything out of the ordinary (Aside from the fact, of course, that their daughter was a witch). She went to the grocer's, picked up the bread and jam, and mulled matters over as she walked back home.

She definitely didn't want Pansy talking to Harry or Ron. Not only was she embarrassed about exposing herself to danger, but she also didn't want to tell the boys that she knew a spell for causing male impotence. Boys, even her best friends, might get very uptight over that. Not that she could blame them.

If it was just Pansy's word against hers, the boys would definitely believe Hermione. But suppose Pansy had some sort of evidence? It would be horrid if Hermione denied something to her beloved friends only to be exposed as a liar by a despicable Slytherin girl.

All sorts of puzzles. But after thinking about it at home, Hermione decided to confront it in a more positive way. She had a Mystery, but she also had a brain. She would solve this, like Miss Marple. And in doing so, she would not only get rid of Pansy's threat, but regain some self-confidence after the embarrassments of today.

Sherlock Holmes, Hermione knew, would sit and smoke his pipe until he came up with a solution. Hermione knew that, in the real world, a detective interviewed people. She was due to send a letter to the Weasleys this evening, and they were going to send her an owl to pick it up – it was awkward that her best friends did not have a phone. She got out the note she had written so far, mostly talking about the approaching Quidditch match. She decided she would tack on a message, and added a final paragraph.

_I encountered Pansy Parkinson today, here in the middle of Muggle land. It seems that she's spying on me. Do you have any idea what she's up to these days?_

Nice and vague. For a moment she almost felt ashamed of herself, being unwilling to talk candidly with her best friends. She just wasn't sure if this was something she could discuss with them. For almost the first time in her life she realized the oddity that she was closer to two boys than to any girl at Hogwarts. But she let it stand, and handed it to Pigwidgeon when the owl arrived that evening. After seeing him off, Hermione went off to dinner with her parents.

"Thank you for getting the food, Minnie," said her mother. "But, tell me, did somebody come by today?"

Hermione nearly dropped her crumpet. "What?"

"I noticed two teacups in the sink."

"Oh. Yes, Professor McGonagall came by, and it was nearly teatime. Hope you don't mind my using the cups." Hermione felt her heart race slightly.

"Not at all, Minnie, I'm glad you've learnt how to entertain guests properly. At your school, after all, everybody's THERE, so you don't get practice handling guests formally."

Normally Hermione would be pleased at being praised by her parents, but not after she had just lied to them. She finished dinner as quickly as she could, and skipped dessert, saying she was too full, so that she could get away from the table.

Her parents knew less about what went on their house than the Ministry of Magic did. That wasn't just mysterious, it was unfair, even though Hermione was relieved that they didn't know. Wizards spying on each other was one thing, but the Ministry was spying on Muggles who had no resistance. Or was the Trace spell on Hermione herself, and not on the house? That was disturbing in a different way; it made her feel dirty, with something that wouldn't wash off.

Hermione went to the bedroom and tried to get her mind off her worries by doing some light reading, a few dozen pages of HOGWARTS, A HISTORY. Her parents were used to this behaviour and didn't find it odd; they sat down in the drawing room to watch the telly. On the couch where she had made out with Johnny-

Shaking her head, she tried to get that image out of her mind.

Toward midnight there was a tapping on the window, and she saw an owl. Surprisingly, it wasn't Pigwidgeon, Ron's owl, but Errol, the Weasley family owl. Hermione gave it some food as a reward, and untied the message.

_Dear Hermione,_

_It's surprising that you asked, because I have seen the Parkinson girl several times recently. Her mother, Persephone Parkinson, works in the Improper Use of Magic office and has brought her daughter to work several times recently. Supposedly it's part of the girl's education, but I suspect that Phony is trying to arrange an eventual job for the daughter after she leaves Hogwarts, introducing her to influential people. Favouritism is quite a problem at the Ministry, and Slytherins are always favourites._

_Hope this helps. See you at the World Cup._

_Regards,_

_Arthur Weasley_

So that explained Pansy's knowledge. In spite of McGonagall's efforts, somebody at the Ministry was careless and Pansy overheard gossip about Hermione and a Muggle boy. Her spying was just an extension of the Ministry's snooping, coupled with its clumsiness in keeping confidences.

Hermione was now annoyed enough to take on the Ministry.

TO BE CONTINUED


	4. Who?

**We Know Where You Were Last Summer**

**Chapter 4 Who?**

_Hermione was walking down one of the corridors at Hogwarts. She felt strangely chilly, even given the fact that the school was several hundred miles from London. Some of the other students were whispering, and pointing at her robe. Mystified, Hermione finally looked down at her clothes._

_She wasn't wearing a robe. In fact, she wasn't wearing anything. She was looking down at her own breasts. Hastily she redeployed her books to cover her chest._

"_Ooh, look, Draco," Hermione heard Pansy Parkinson's voice behind her. "A Muggle arse!"_

_Hermione spun to hide her posterior from the Slytherins, but it did little good, because there were people all around her. There was a room off the corridor nearby, and she tried to make her way to it in order to hide herself. But she walked slowly, and slowly, and-_

She woke up.

She was in her bed in the Granger house, tangled up in the bedsheets. Nobody was gawking at her, nor would it matter if they did, because she was wearing decent pyjamas. It was just a nightmare.

Hermione was well-read enough to know that nude-in-public nightmares were a common phenomenon. But in her case they were probably triggered by her resentment yesterday, that various people had violated her privacy.

_I gotta find out how they did that, so I don't keep brooding on it, she told herself._

But first, there were mundane Muggle matters to take care of.

She joined her parents for breakfast. They asked if she had slept well, and she lied and said yes. Then they started planning their day. Once more the Granger parents had a full day at the dentists' office, while Hermione had nothing scheduled. She agreed to do some chores around the house, which she hoped would keep her mind occupied for a bit. She would have to do it without magic, even though Mrs. Weasley had told her quite a few Household Hex Hints.

Later, while polishing some furniture, she thought of something odd. Students of Gryffindor tended to let their hair down a bit in the Common Room in the evenings, sometimes spilling things and generally making a mess. Yet whenever Hermione came back down in the morning, the room always looked impeccable. How? Some sort of reverse-entropy spell that eliminated the disorder? She hadn't wondered about it before.

But that puzzle wasn't important. She needed to concentrate on the spying problem.

It was typical of Hermione that, while physically involved in doing household chores, she mentally was planning out how to find information.

Her usual strategy was to visit the Hogwarts library, either open stacks or the Restricted Books. But Hogwarts was hundreds of miles away. She had heard of something called the Internet where one could look for information from any computer, but she quite doubted that the Hogwarts Library was on it.

The spying spell could probably be classified as a charm, in which case the expert will be the elder Professor Flitwick. But she had no idea where either of the Flitwicks spent their summer holidays.

What about the wizards at the Ministry?

McGonagall had told her about the trace but clearly did not want to go into details; she thought the trace was a good idea. It would probably be impossible to get information out of McGonagall against her will.

There were two other workers at the Ministry whom Hermione knew well: Percy Weasley and his father. Percy, however, was unlikely to go out on a limb, particularly at the beginning of his Ministry career. For him, "prefect" was an anagram of "perfect".

Arthur might be a little more unconventional: after all he was fascinated by Muggle technology, which other wizards regarded as a silly hobby. But he respected Hermione a lot, and she was reluctant to tell him that she had done something stupid.

Did it matter? What Jonny had tried to do was far more reprehensible than Hermione's actions; she had just been naive. But that was precisely the problem. To Hermione it was much more important to be clever than to be pretty, or sexy, or popular.

As her mind backed off from the idea of talking to the Weasleys, it banged into a seemingly irrelevant idea: the Marauders' Map.

Harry had been given the map during the past year. It came directly from Fred and George, but its original owners and inventors were supposed to be Harry's father James and his three friends: Sirius Black, Remus Lupin, and Wormtail. The map showed the location of nearly every denizen of Hogwarts, nearly 600 students and several dozen professors. Harry – rather typically – didn't worry about how it worked; to him its importance was that it was useful for dodging people like Draco and Filch, and the association with his father. Hermione had been too distracted by her course overload and the time travel to study it. But now that she thought about it, wasn't it another manifestation of the spying spell, on a huge scale?

James Potter was dead. Sirius Black and Wormtail were in hiding, for quite different reasons. That left Lupin as the only inventor whom she might be able to ask.

That night, before the Weasleys' owl returned, Hermione wrote Mr. Weasley a message asking if he knew Professor Lupin's current whereabouts since he "resigned" from the school. The faithful Mr. Weasley sent back a prompt answer.

_Yes, I know where Remus is. He is currently staying with the Tonks family – Ted Tonks, his wife Andromeda, and their daughter Dora. They live near London. Since I know that you're cut off from the Floo network and are restricted to Muggle transport, I've included their address._

Hermione checked the result on a map, and discovered that the house was fairly near a suburban railway station. This was a little surprising, since wizards rarely used the railway except for the Hogwarts Express. Maybe it was a coincidence, but it was a useful one for Hermione, who would be able to reach the Tonks house easily.

When she woke up the next morning, Hermione could remember no nightmares during the night. Her mind was settled. After all, she was doing what she enjoyed best: the pursuit of knowledge.

_NOTE: The mysterious cleanups at Hogwarts are due to elves, as Hermione is to discover during her fourth year. _

_NOTE: I am assuming that the movie Flitwicks, the Charms teacher and the music director, are two separate characters, maybe uncle and nephew. The music teacher never appears in the books._


	5. Chez Tonks

**We Know Where You Were Last Summer**

**Chapter 5 Chez Tonks**

Late on Friday Hermione set out to visit Lupin. Her parents were cool with the expedition, insisting only that she stick with cabs and trains and not wander about at night. Hermione agreed, wondering what her parents would think if they knew about some of her nocturnal wanderings at Hogwarts.

The station in the Tonks' surburb was small, but very orderly. There was even a roped-off queue area at the cab stand, when the travellers might have been expected to observe queue discipline anyway – they were British, after all. Hermione got in line behind a couple of other commuters.

Then the ropes suddenly fell her way and nearly knocked her off her feet. Behind her she heard a woman's voice cry, "Whoops! Oh, Babayaga's boobs!"

_Babayaga's boobs?_ A colourful curse, and something only a witch would say. Hermione turned around and saw a young woman in punk style – patched jeans, and spiky hair dyed purple. She was obviously the one who had knocked down the ropes, and was trying to straighten them out now. Hermione helped, resisting the urge to pull out her wand and do it swiftly.

"Ta. Terribly sorry," said the punk girl. Then she stared at the younger witch. "I say, aren't you Hermione Granger?"

"Um, yes, but how-?"

"I'm Tonks. Saw your picture in-" the woman stopped hastily, realizing that her actions had gotten the attention of other people in the queue. "Mind sharing a cab? Then we can talk. I'll treat."

"OK. Dora Tonks?" she asked, remembering the reference in Mr. Weasley's note.

The punk girl seemed displeased. "I suppose Dora's OK. Just don't ask me what it's short for."

The girls finally reached the front of the queue, and got in the cab. Tonks gave a destination, then covertly pulled out her wand and gave a little wave with it. Hermione guessed that she was hexing the Muggle cab driver to be sure that he didn't hear, or at least remember, their conversation.

"You saw my picture somewhere?" she asked. "I don't think it was in _Daily Prophet."_

"No, they never know wot's going on . You were written up twice in the _Auror's Oracle_. About your thwarting the theft of the Philosopher's Stone, and helping your friends track down the basilisk in the Chamber of Secrets."

She had apparently not read of her most recent escapade – helping Sirius Black escape recapture. That was clearly not something to talk to an Auror about; they were the wizard worlds' bobbies. Hermione and her friends could get in much trouble if found out.

"You're an Auror?"

"Yep. Just finished training this year."

"Wouldn't it be difficult for you to go undercover?"

"Oh, my hair? I can fix that." Suddenly the purple hair turned a dull mousy brown colour, and flattened itself into a more conventional hair-do.

"Cool! How did you do that?"

"I'm a Metamorphmagus." She turned her hair back to purple/spiked, obviously preferring that form. "I can change some details of my appearance at will."

That was a handy skill to have. Hermione thought sometimes that it might be cool to trim her hair so that it was less bushy, or shrink some of her teeth slightly. Ron might not mind losing a freckle or two; Harry would like to flatten his hair, and perhaps hide the scar more easily. Tonks could experiment with sort of thing without committing herself.

They reached the residence soon; Tonks explained that she had "digs" in London but was visiting her parents for the weekend. She insisted on paying the cabbie, and unlike most witches whom Hermione had met, showed no confusion over handling the Muggle money.

Her parents met them at the door. They were the first wizard couple whom Hermione had met after the Weasleys, and certainly different from that pair. Mrs. Weasley was effusive, always saying exactly what was on her mind; Mrs. Tonks was reserved, but not at all rude. Mr Weasley was self-effacing, but Mr. Tonks was almost six feet tall and somewhat plump. Like Hagrid, he had learned not to let his size be intimidating, and almost exuded warmth. The parents immediately invited Hermione to share dinner.

Hermione was agreeable, but was startled when she saw that Mrs. Tonks was only laying 4 places at the table. "Will Professor Lupin not be dining with us?"

"He's went off to visit a friend, said his name was Paddy," said Ted Tonks. "Said he'd be back by eight, but not to wait dinner for him."

Hermione realized that Paddy must be the fugitive Sirius Black, whose nickname in school had been Padfoot, but she couldn't say so in front of Tonks, who worked for the wizard police. She hastily changed the subject. "Tonks told me she's a Metamorphmagus, Did she get that from either of you?" she asked as they sat at table.

"No," said . "We have some unusual family traits, but not that. We don't know where her skill came from."

"Traits?"

"You may have met my sister's son," said Mrs. Tonks drily. "Draco Malfoy."

"W-what? Yes. I, um, punched him in the nose this year."

The other three burst out laughing. "Let me guess," said Mr. Tonks. "He called you a vulgar word, meaning 'Muggle Born'".

"Yes."

"Good for you. I'm Muggle-born myself, and I got the same treatment from Lucius and Cissy when we were in school."

"They cast me out of the family when I married Ted," said Mrs. Tonks, not sounding too bothered, "and I'm well out of it. I think I understand Draco's problem. Only son of a millionaire aristocrat, and for the first ten years of his life everybody was telling him how special he was. But then he gets to school, and finds that he is outshone by the famous Harry Potter and by a very clever Muggle-born girl." Hermione was about to protest, but was cut short " No, don't be modest, Hermione; we've heard from Remus how clever you are."

Hermione gathered that their ostracism by the Malfoy relatives had given the Tonks grownups a sympathy for social outcasts, and that had led to their invitation for Professor Lupin, an involuntary werewolf, to live with them for a while. She liked the Tonkses a lot, and wished that the Sirius secret didn't require her to be on her guard. She was relieved when Professor Lupin came around eight, and agreed to talk with her privately. Only it wasn't completely private, because Tonks insisted on sitting in. To Hermione's surprise, the brash girl seemed very fond of the melancholy professor.

"So how can I help you, Hermione?" he asked after Mr and Mrs. Tonks had withdrawn.

Hermione had decided to leave out the whole matter of the Ministry spying on her. "There's a spell I'm curious about, Professor."

He chuckled. "Always willing to learn even during the summer hols, eh? And call me Remus, now that we're not at school."

"Thank you , um, Remus." She found it strange to call her former teacher by his first name. "I'd like to know how the Marauder's Map works."

"Wot's that?" asked Tonks.

"The Marauder's Map is a charm that gives the location of any person at Hogwarts," he explained to her.

"Awesome! Imagine how useful it would be if the Aurors could locate their culprits immediately."

Remus Lupin looked grim. "And imagine how frightening it would be if the culprits knew where the Aurors were all the time, and could always evade them."

"Bloody hell," she muttered, seeing the implications. "Where is the map now?"

"Harry has it," said Hermione, unsure how much she should reveal. "But the point is, that Remus knows the underlying spell. He invented it with three of his friends."

"No, I'm afraid that's not the case," said Remus.

"What? But Fred and George said-"

"Fred and George Weasley were repeating a tale that had floated around Hogwarts for a generation, and improved in the telling," said Remus. "Yes, we had the map. And we added a few wrinkles, if you don't mind the pun. The opening oath, the 'mischief managed', the insults directed at people like Snape who tried to use it without having been vetted. But the massive locator spell itself was far beyond our powers – I'd say, still beyond our powers even if we could get together today."

"But where did you get the map?" asked Hermione in surprise.

"James and Lily went away for a few days during their sixth year. We, ahem, had our own ideas about what they did while they were away. But they had the map with them when they came back."

"Damn." So Hermione wasn't going to get the secret from Lupin after all. Then she brightened. Hercule Poirot would never want somebody to just tell him a solution; it would take pride in figuring it out with his little grey cells. "Well, I don't care. I'm going to solve the mystery, find out where they went, and find out who made the map originally and how."

Tonks banged the table with her fist enthusiastically, knocking several pieces of cutlery to the floor. "And I'll go with you!"

TO BE CONTINUED

_(AUTHOR'S NOTE: Nymphadora Tonks first appeared in ORDER OF THE PHOENIX, and her parents in DEATHLY HALLOWS. But that's from Harry's point of view, and I feel free to make up an account of how Hermione might have met them earlier.__All three have been pretty much ignored in the movie versions. __I might add that one of the running jokes in the books is Dora's tendency to knock over various small objects in her vicinity)_

_(AUTHOR'S NOTE: Baba Yaga is a witch in Russian folklore. To Westerners she is probably most familiar from Mussorgsky's __THE HUT OF BABA YAGA from the musical suite PICTURES AT AN EXHIBITION.)_


	6. The Railroad not Taken

**We Know Where You Were Last Summer**

**Chapter 6 **** The Railroad not Taken  
**

"A research project?" asked Mum on Saturday morning.

"That's right," said Hermione. "I'll be working with Dora Tonks. It may take me away for one night, but no longer, because Dora needs to be back to her job on Monday. I'll take stuff in a backpack."

"And are you sure it's safe?" asked Dad.

"It should be. And after all, I'll be with Dora. She works in security at the Ministry of Magic, and knows what to do if a crisis comes up – which it won't," she added hastily.

Hermione desperately hoped that Tonks would live up to the safe-and-secure image that she was presenting to her parents, and the older woman nearly did, when she made a call to the Grangers' house an hour later. She had made her hair brunette and pulled it into a bun in back, which would have looked nice if it hadn't reminded Hermione of Voldemort living on the back of Professor Quirrell's head. She was still wearing jeans, but a stylish, nonpatched pair. She did knock the coffee table off balance while walking through the sitting room, but whipped out her wand and straightened it out again before it hit the floor. After complimenting the dentists on raising such a clever daughter, and thanking them for permitting the expedition, she startled them by embarking through the back door instead of the front.

"Er – why are we back here, Dora?" asked Hermione, looking around her own backyard.

"To Apparate in privacy," explained Tonks. "Oh, we could have gone out the front door and then looked for a private spot to disappear in, but Muggles who saw us hiding might misinterpret." (It took a couple of years before Hermione realized exactly what Tonks was talking about). "Now, grab my arm, and I'll take you along by Side-Along Apparition."

Hermione obeyed, and a lot of weird sensations were the result. It was something like travelling on the Floo Network, and was probably an effect of the same "technology". The senses of touch, sight, and hearing were all confused, and Hermione speculated that it was the result of trying to interpret four-dimensional surroundings with a three-dimensional body. But unfortunately Hogwart's most advanced maths course was Arithnomancy, which wasn't much help in analyzing the phenomenon.

Finally the universe returned to normal, and Hermione looked around, disoriented. They had materialized in a street, but it was a cobblestoned street with no cars. Surrounding pedestrians were dressed in robes, and showed little astonishment at their having materialized here in their midst.

"It's Hogsmeade!" Hermione finally realized in surprise. She had visited the town several times this past winter, and always thought of it as being covered in snow and crowded with students. Now, with all the Hogwarts students away, and at the height of summer, it looked like a sleepy old fashioned town. "Why are we here?"

"Got a clue from Remus," said Tonks. "I'll show you in a few minutes. But we may have to cover some territory, and we'll need brooms. Do you want a separate broom, or ride behind me?"

"I'll ride behind you." Hermione had never functioned well on a broom, and was the only person in her social group who was not into Quidditch. She tended a little toward acrophobia, as she had discovered riding Buckbeak through the air a couple of months ago. But this was a different; practical use of brooms, equivalent to a 19th century riding horse as opposed to a Polo pony. Perhaps she would learn to be more skillful on this trip.

"Cool. I'll rent a long broom. Meanwhile, go to the train station. You might notice something unexpected."

Hogmeade station was the one used by Hogwarts itself; it was the southeastern end of town where the lake ended. Like the town itself, it looked eerily deserted with all of the students gone. Nothing to see but the platforms, the little pedestrian bridge, and the single-track itself. It ran south to London, of course, but also –

"See what I was talking about?" asked Tonks, walking up with a new broom.

"The track – it doesn't stop! It keeps going north. Why hadn't I noticed that before? I've been going through here for three years!"

"Don't feel stupid about it. Most of the time you've been here, the train was on the tracks blocking your view. Besides, when you're here, you have a lot on your mind – returning to Hogwarts, or heading to London for holidays. No reason to stare at the track."

"But where does it GO?" asked Hermione. "Everybody thinks of the Express as a London-to-Hogwarts shuttle."

Tonks shrugged. "Dunno. But apparently Lily Evans noticed it, and told James, and James told Remus, and Remus told me. Now, it may be something purely boring – a rail yard, say, where the train does nothing but get serviced and turn around. But it may be that somebody clever has hidden something in plain sight. Maybe something connected to your Marauder's Map, because James and Lily pulled their mystery trip shortly after James told Remus about the track. Care to explore?"

"That would be cool!"

"All right. Just one thing to consider first. If somebody DID intend to hide the northern extent of the track, then hiding may not be the only thing they did. There may be other obstacles."

"Like the series of ordeals protecting the Philosopher's Stone."

"Right. Is curiosity important enough to go into danger?"

"We'll know when we find it," said Hermione coolly.

Tonks laughed. "Love that answer. OK. Hop up behind me on the broom, and we'll follow the track."

In spite of her bravado, Hermione felt a little nervous getting on the broom behind Tonks. Flying made her nervous even in the best circumstances, and riding behind Tonks was not a particular good circumstance . The woman was always dropping things by accident, and Hermione didn't want to be the next victim, falling off a broom onto a rail bed at several miles per hour.

Tonks, however seemed to have had a lot of practice flying on a broomstick. She flew low over the track, just high enough to keep their feet from dragging on the ground. As they proceeded the Lake came into view. She had sailed on it from the station to Hogwarts the first year, and had seen Harry produce a Patronus on the forested side, but this was the first time she was seeing it at this angle.

She had spent nearly three years in Hogwarts, yet there was a lot that she did not know about the vicinity. Tonks was right; somebody could have hidden something here right under their noses.

They left the lake and plunged into the Forbidden Forest. But whereas the Lake appeared only one side of their tracks, the Forest extended on both sides. Somebody had had the courage, or recklessness, to run the railway directly through the forest. Hermione didn't think the creatures of the forest would be pleased.

Suddenly Tonks slowed to a stop, and dropped their height until their feet touched the ground.

"What is it?" asked Hermione.

"Spiders."

"But what's wrong with spi- oh!" said Hermione, who now saw giant arachnids walking toward them. Ron had mentioned seeing them on a trip to the Forbidden Forest two years ago, but this was Hermione's first sight of them.

The spiders stopped several feet away. "In the name of Aragog the Ga-reat, leave our land or be eaten," said one.

"We only wish safe-conduct across the land. We will touch nothing," declared Tonks.

"You are lying, humans. We agreed to give humans safe conduct once before, and they left a permanent iron web across our property. " The spider tapped the iron rail to show what it meant.

Hermione was caught between two impulses: she wanted to respect the spiders' claims, but she didn't want to give up her quest this easily. Suddenly she had a third idea. "Dora, let me control the broom."

"You're not going to try to ram through them, are you?" asked Tonks.

"No."

Tonks got up from the broom and circled behind Hermione, who slid her bum forward along the stick. "All right, hang on please." Hermione angled the head of her broom up about 45 degrees, then willed it to move.

The broom shot up into the air, over the heads – or whatever – of the spiders. The ground was about 40 feet down by the time she leveled off. Acrophobia hit, and Hermione was tempted to close her eyes, as she had while riding Buckbeak – but she HAD to see where she was going, lest she run into one of the trees of the forest.

"They claimed – land - not air," she gasped out.

"Brilliant!" praised Tonks. "But I think we're leaving the territory now – the terrain is changing. It may be safe to land."

Hermione angled the broom head downward, and tried to resist the temptation to descend TOO quick, lest they crash into the ground or the rail bed. When they were a few feet from the ground, she leveled out and then dropped them the rest of the way. Letting go of the broom, she dismounted, staggered a few feet to the left of the rail bed, and vomited up her breakfast.

"Sorry," she said a minute later, embarrassed at the display.

"Don't be – that was a brilliant stratagem! But do you feel like continuing forward? Or do you want to turn back?"

"Turning back means crossing spider turf again, right?"

"I'm afraid so."

"Then let's carry on. I just hope that what we find is worth the risk!"

TO BE CONTINUED.

_(Author's Note: the title is a pun on Robert Frost's poem "THE ROAD NOT TAKEN." I know that they're called railways in the UK, but you can't have everything)_


	7. From Darkness into Light

**We Know Where You Were Last Summer**

**Chapter 7 From Darkness into Light**

Tonks was able to settle Hermione's stomach with a potion – it seemed that she took various medical aids with her when she went on police work, in case she got injured or cursed. The only catch was that Hermione couldn't eat for a couple of hours – all the more reason to keep traveling and keep her mind off of her empty stomach.

They resumed riding the broomstick above the railway tracks, with Tonks in control. They were still in the Forbidden Forest, but no other creatures seemed interested in attacking. The main change was that they were approaching the mountains. The mountains were visible in the distance from Hogwarts, and were presumably part of the Scottish Highlands, but neither Hermione nor any other student she knew had visited them. Lone trips off campus were forbidden, and there were more interesting places closer to the castle - the Forbidden Forest and Hogsmeade. She had guessed that at least one purpose of the mountains was to hide Hogwarts and the village from the outside world, and she knew that Sirius Black had hid in them after his escape. Only now was she wondering if the mountains were designed to hide things from the wizards themselves.

Finally the tracks ran straight into the mountain; they could see a tunnel opening up before them. Tonks landed the broom at the side of the tracks, and Hermione guessed that she was thinking the same thing Hermione was. They had dodged the spiders by flowing over them; other dangers could have been met by leaving the tracks and flying into the forest. In a tunnel, though, there may be no room to circle around danger.

Eventually Tonks gave her verdict.

"All right, we'll try it. But if any danger comes up, grab onto me and I'll Apparate us out. If that happens, we give up the expedition. This isn't like your underground trip looking for the Philosopher's Stone. Curiosity isn't worth risking our lives. "

"OK." Even though Hermione agreed, she hoped no danger arose. She wanted to know what lay at the end of the tracks.

"Can you "lumos" up your wand to light our way?"

"That might set off an alarm at the Ministry. I'm underage."

"Oh. Right. Well, I'll light up my wand and you can hold it."

They got back onto the broom, with Hermione holding Tonks's wand up. Tonks flew them into the train tunnel.

Nothing immediate happened, so Tonks kept flying above the track. The tunnel made several turns, never at right angles. Tonks said that was probably on purpose, so that infiltrators would lose their sense of direction and not know exactly where the path was headed. She was worried that the designers might have also put in decoys: junctions in the track where one route led to the real destination while the other turned out to be a time-consuming cul-de-sac. But that apparently had not occurred to the designers. Nor were there any doors or side-tunnels off the track. They simply had to follow its course.

Hermione was not bugged by enclosed spaces – she had traveled an even smaller tunnel to the Shrieking Shack just a couple of months ago. She also had a lot of patience. Nevertheless, the endless sight of nothing but rock and railbed got very monotonous. At one point she looked at her watch and realized that they had spent more time in the tunnel than they had outside. She almost announced that she was bored and wanted to stop – but then realized that the boredom might be on purpose, to discourage infiltrators, and that made her determined to keep going. If Tonks was having similar frustrations, she was too proud to mention them.

After several hours, Hermione actually saw daylight ahead, not coming from her wand. Tonks spotted it too, and let her broom sink to the railbed.

"Don't you want to get out?" asked Hermione plaintively.

"Yes," said Tonks, "but we need to be cautious. If we zoom straight out, we'd be blinded by sudden daylight, and vulnerable. They might have set up a trap at exactly that point."

"That's true," said Hermione. Even after three years of adventures, she hadn't developed Tonk's experience with anticipating possible danger.

The two girls walked slowly toward the tunnel exit, with Hermione carrying the broom and Tonks holding her wand ready. They let their eyes get accustomed to the light. The precaution turned out to be unnecessary: not only was there no trap, but Hermione found herself looking out on a lovely vista. There was a field of thick green grass, very welcome after the blackness and grayness of the tunnel, and a grove of trees at the far end. To the left the ground fell off abruptly, and she was looking over a vast valley; it looked like they had unwittingly gained a bit of altitude during the long trip. To the right of the track the mountain still rose steeply.

It was teatime, and in theory they could have gone further after having tea and some snacks from Hermione's backpack, but both girls were tired of hours spent with their hinder parts balanced on a broomstick and staring at an unvarying rail bed. Hermione's arm ached from having to hold Tonks' wand up for so long. Tonks pointed out that they could always Apparate back to Hogsmeade at the end of the journey, so they could spend all of Sunday moving forward and not worry about reserving time for the return journey.

And so they relaxed, walking a bit around the field and enjoying the view. Tonks decided to divulge a crucial incident in her life.

"When I was eight or so, we had a visit from a relative – on my mother's side, but cast out from the family like my Mum. He was a bloody handsome bloke, and I got quite a crush on him. Being cousins didn't matter – if you were born in a wizard family, any wizard you meet is likely to be a close or distant relation. His name was Sirius Black."

"Oh!" exclaimed Hermione, startled at the name of her secret friend coming up.

"I suppose you've heard of him from Harry Potter – how he was sent to Azkaban for killing the Potter parents, among other crimes. But somehow I can't visualize him as a vile criminal, and I wonder if he could somehow be innocent. Though maybe that's just a little girl's fantasy."

Hermione decided that it was still too risky to mention what she knew about Sirius. But the ice was broken, and she decided to tell Tonks the full story of the past few days – inviting a boy to her house only to find her virginity in danger; the visit from McGonagall, Pansy Parkinson's vicious blackmail, and how all that had aroused her curiosity as to how the Ministry could keep tabs on people. Tonks was understanding about her mistake with the boy, though she pointed out that it was very good fortune that Hermione knew a spell for causing male impotence. She also agreed that it was a good idea not to mention that spell to Harry or Ron.

As darkness fell, they found a small cave in which they could sleep without worrying about the elements or about being spotted. Tonks proved resourceful, using magic to clear out debris, and pull in old leaves so that they wouldn't have to lie on hard ground. But Hermione made a mental note that if she ever did an overnight trip again, she would bring a tent.

The next morning they started out again. The track was definitely heading uphill now, which implied that its destination was on the mountain itself and couldn't be too far away. Somebody had smoothed off just enough ground to support a level railbed, and the cliff was now only a few feet to their left. Hermione avoided looking that way, fearing it would trigger her acrophobia again. Actually there was probably no magical difference in a broom floating a few off the ground or a few hundred feet, but she couldn't tell her phobia that.

After about an hour, something suddenly changed. The railbed turned rightward, and she saw a large, smooth stone ahead to the left. It arched over the railway, and in the gap was a large gate of iron bars, some of it ornately bent in attractive patterns. Behind it they could see buildings, in an odd style, though Hermione was too startled to examine them closely. It was the first sign of civilization they had seen since Hogsmeade, not counting the railroad itself.

A man in wizard robes appeared on the other side, and looked at the pair calmly. "Good morning, Miss Tonks. Miss Granger."

"You know who are we are?" asked Hermione apprehensively.

"Oh yes," he replied. "We have been expecting you!"

TO BE CONTINUED


	8. Time for Answers

**We Know Where You Were Last Summer**

**Chapter 8 ****Time for Answers**

The wizard waved his wand, and the gates opened. In the meantime a dignified-looking witch walked in from the side to join the wizard. "Please come in."

_Will you walk into my parlour, said the spider to the fly__, _thought Hermione_. _Not only could they lock the gates behind the girls once they were in, but they might have a spell to prevent Apparating out, as Hogwarts did. She looked at Tonks. The older girl looked apprehensive, but said: "They knew we were coming. They could have captured us last night in the cave if they wanted to. I suppose we can trust them."

So the girls walked forward, through the gates. They found themselves in a large paved plaza, like Trafalgar Square but circular in shape. It was ringed by houses and other buildings in the Hogsmeade style. The largest building was at the far end, and looked like a temple, but with no explicit religious markings on it. The railway tracks ran to the middle of the plaza and simply stopped. Obviously this was their destination.

"Welcome to Temporary Town. My name is Tempothy," said the wizard. "This is my wife, Chrona. Please forgive the others for staying out of sight. They don't want to be recognized, if you saw them out in the Wizard or Muggle worlds."

Which was an admission that they were doing SOMETHING sneaky. Hermione also noticed that they didn't give surnames. Why were the first names so wierd, instead of calling themselves Timothy and Rona?

"How did you know we were coming?" asked Tonks, who obviously didn't like being predictable.

"We'll explain," said Chrona, "but first, let us offer you breakfast. You had nothing to eat yesterday but cold snacks on the trail."

_How did they know that?_ Hermione wondered again. But she followed them.

They guided the girls into the house next to the temple. A short hallway led them to a kitchen/breakfast room. It looked like a wizard house, with old fashioned furniture that Muggles might consider antiques, but Hermione was startled to notice that they had electric lights, and there was a small telly sitting on a shelf in one corner ( Years later, she was to realize that it was more likely a computer monitor) Somehow their hosts had discovered how to protect electricity from being disrupted by magical energy. If wizards in the outside world were to learn this, it could revolutionize their way of life, allowing them to use modern technology instead of depending on magic for everything. But Hermione had more immediate concerns.

There was an ancient myth about a girl, Persephone, who had visited a magic land and discovered that she had to stay there forever because she had eaten its food. Was it all right to eat breakfast? But the situation in the myth didn't really resemble modern magic, and so she decided it was safe. So she ate the scrambled eggs and toast, and found them delicious.

Afterward the hosts offered the girls the use of their loo. Having had to pee under rather primitive conditions the previous day, Hermione was grateful, but it was something very prosaic to find in a magic land.

They walked next door to the temple next. The front doors let them into a long hallway. All doors were closed and there were no people in sight, and Hermione remembered their hosts' admission that they didn't want the visitors to see everything. There were double doors at the far end, and the hosts let them in. Hermione noticed that their hosts never used keys at any point; everything was unlocked. Apparently the people of this town trusted each other, and thought that they had their visitors under perfect control.

They were now in a round chamber. In the middle, on a pedestal, was what looked like an hourglass, but in an odd shape, and what was inside was a smoky mist, rather than sand.

"Do you know what this is?" asked Tempothy.

"It looks like a Time Turner," said Hermione. "A big one." She had been told to keep the Time Turner spell secret, but she suspected the hosts already knew about it.

"A wot?" asked Tonks.

"It's a charm that can send you back in time," explained Hermione. "I used one during the last school year."

"Armida's arse!" swore Tonks. "Marauder's Maps, Time Turners, I missed out on all the cool stuff in school!"

Hermione wondered who Armida was, but this wasn't the proper time to ask.

"We were doing research on temporal spells in London fifteen years ago," said Chrona. "Then the Dark Lord came into power. We didn't want him to get his paws on this magic, or even to know that it existed, so we went into hiding. Dumbledore recommended staying here in the mountains, at the end of the Hogwarts Express Line. So we came here, and built Temporary Town, and perfected our research."

"So you built the extension to the railway at the time?"

"Not precisely," said Tempothy. "We went back in time and persuaded the original builders to add it on. But few people ever noticed that."

"Awesome!" she exclaimed at the clever idea.

"We can travel into the future, too. Our future selves showed us a log of visitors to this site. Two of them were James Potter and Lily Evans, back when they were students. And now you two. It had the date of your arrival - today - and your names, and some other information that you had told us."

"We haven't told you much yet," said Tonks.

"No, but you are going to."

Tonks looked dizzy. If there was any unattached objects nearby, she probably would be knocking them over.

"Time loops are hard to get used to, I know," said Chrona sympathetically. "When you can travel into the future and back, you can find out what is going to happen, and so there are no surprises in our way of life. Particularly since it may be impossible to change the course of events. They will always happen the same way, no matter how many trips you take."

"Are you sure of that?" asked Hermione, trying to wrap her mind around the phenomenon. "I mean, people have free will. Suppose you do something, then go back in time to the same moment and decide to do something different?"

Tempothy looked stern. "We aren't sure. Our strongest taboo is _never change the course of events_."

"Sorry."

"No, it's a logical question. What worries us is that some outsider might get our spells, break the taboo and deliberately try to change history. We don't know what will happen – maybe nothing, maybe splitting the universe in half. That's why we're careful to keep our existence secret."

"I see. But you're telling us."

"Future records say that you will never betray us."

Tonks had apparently decided to go back to basics. "When we started out, our goal was to find out where James and Lily got the Marauder's Map. I presume that when they came here, you gave them the map?"

"Not us personally, but their official hosts at the time did."

"Where did you originally get the Map?" asked Hermione. "The original creator must have been a brilliant wizard."

"One of our members received it during a visit to the future," said Chrona.

"But where did they get it in the future?"

"A friend of Harry Potter's. We put a cleaning-up spell on the Map and put it in our archives."

"Wait-wait-wait," pled Hermione, now hopelessly confused. "You say you got it from the future, and gave it to the Potters, and one of Harry's friends gave it back to your town, and your town sent it back to the past."

"Yes."

"But where did it ORIGINALLY come from?"

"That's hard to say," admitted Tempothy. "Maybe it has been travelling in a time loop forever. Or maybe somebody did change the course of events, and invented it during one of the cycles. I don't like thinking about that."

Hermione didn't either. She rubbed her head. She rarely suffered from information overloads, but she was feeling it now.

Chrona misinterpreted the gesture. "Maybe it would be nice to get some fresh air. Let's go back to the plaza."

They went back outdoors and strolled around the plaza. Tonks did most of the talking now, because Hermione was trying to figure out time loops, and solve problems of free will and predetermination in her head. Like most of the great thinkers of history, she wasn't having much luck at it.

"The railway?" Chrona said in answer to a question from Tonks. "Yes, we use it to visit the outside world sometimes, incognito. But I assure you that we're not meddling with people's lives out there. It would contradict our taboo on changing things. We do only what's necessary to keep history on track. Actually the most frequent use is simply to import food and supplies, especially in winter. We're scarcely self-sufficient here."

"I think I believe you," said Tonks. Hermione could guess what was bothering the older girl. She was an Auror, charged with protecting the wizard world from criminal activity. Should she report what she had found, or keep it secret? She seemed to be leaning toward the secrecy. Hermione herself wasn't sure whether she wanted to tell Harry or Ron about this.

Tempothy and Chrona invited them in for lunch, and though nobody said explicitly, it seemed that the lunch was marking the end of the visit, just as breakfast had marked the beginning. At the close, Tempothy looked somber.

"There are two things that I would like to ask of you."

"Oh?"

"First," said Chrona, "we must have the Marauder's Map back to close the cycle. Not immediately – indeed, Harry is going to need it in the next few years. But eventually."

"All right," said Hermione. "I'll arrange it."

"The second is this," said Tempothy. "The Ministry of Magic is doing research on Time Turners again. However, it is in danger of landing in the wrong hands, which would misuse it terribly. You must destroy the charms."

"I can't take action against the Ministry," said Tonks. "I've sworn an oath as an Auror."

"I'm willing to do it if I get the chance," said Hermione. "But I'm not likely to be sneaking around in the Ministry any time soon."

They left it at that. The hosts accompanied them back to the gate. Outside, Tonks grabbed the broom in one hand, and Hermione's arm in the other, and Apparated. They materialized in the Hogsmeade street.

"That's how Pansy did it!" said Hermione suddenly.

"Wot's that?"

"How she disappeared from my neighborhood. She had a grownup with her, who could take her along by side-along Apparation, as you've been doing."

Tonks frowned. "I hate that idea. A nasty teenager is bad enough, but to think some adult is encouraging her in her little blackmail scheme – on the other hand, maybe it was an elf. They'd have the power to Apparate, but would be afraid to disobey a human. Even a human bitch."

Hermione realized that she hated THAT idea.

"I'm going to return the broom," Tonks said.

"Good riddance. It was a literal pain in the arse, riding it for several hours. Next time I'll try something comfortable, like a dragon."

"Be careful wot you wish for," said Tonks. "You may get it."

THE END

Epilogue: Two years later, Hermione paid an unexpected nocturnal trip to the Ministry of Magic, accompanying Harry, Ron, Ginny, Neville, and Luna. In passing they found the temporal research room, and Hermione destroyed the Time Turners while everybody was distracted, ensuring that they would not land in the hands of Voldemort.


End file.
